R/? Looking for a build with highest single point Direct Damage

Hello all. My first post in the builds area. I'm currently a 20 R/E and I'm looking for a build that will maximize my single target direct damage. Let's assume I have 200 attribute points and access to all elites/skills/runes. This is a PVE ONLY character. I currently have 2 weapons that I primarily use:

15/28 Zealous Shortbow +15% >50%
15/28 Zealous Longbow +15% >50%

Feel free to modify the weapons (ie elemental strings) and armor to suit the build. If anyone suggests a secondary other than Elementalist.. that's great too! Let me know your ideas!

Thanks in advance

Monk Secondary. Judge's Insight. Penetrating attack, dual shot.

with elementalist 2ndry, I'm pretty sure the tried and true is:
kindle arrows, conjure flame, tiger's fury, penetrating
get to pick the elite of your choice.

or you can drop the preparation and go the:
conjure flame, tiger's fury, barrage route, but then you need a flame string

(kindle has the effect of triggering the flame requirement needed for conjure flame, barrage removes the preparation)

At least that's how I understand your options.
Cheers.

Stack the most damage as possible into the enemy with one shot huh?

Conjure Element, Read the Wind, Dual Shot...

Armor Penetration needed?

Conjure Element, Read the Wind, Penetrating Shot...

High DoT for those long lasting pain inducers?

Conjure Element, Read the Wind, Hunter's Shot... / Poison Arrow [or would that cancel out conjure?]

I didn't memorize all the major Ranger builds but this is my best guess at a single hit high dmg strike/s...

I for one am taking the advice on Marksman's Wager, Conjure Element, Tiger's Fury... Then mindlessly spamming Hunter's Shot, Penetrating Shot, Dual Shot, Precision Shot... Ah, my beloved Icy Stormbow of Marksmanship...

This coming from the guy who adamantly said he wouldn't buy an icy bowstring finds one by accident... Huzzah!

I play a Ranger/Mesmer as my primary character in PvE. I am a complete solo player except for henchmen, have yet to party with anybody(no comment plz) I'm at level 19.5 in the river side province( I have no interest in beating the game, quickly). I use read the wind then apply poison and lightning reflexes, then use hunters shot and determined shot( low energy cost fast re-charge time) and conjure phantasm. I think I go Illusion magic = 9 wilderness = 9ish expertise = 10ish and marksmenship at 11 to 13ish. I use a 15-28 ascalon bow with an ice string on it, did have shocking on it but just changed it last night, cuz I was bored with it. I really have no problem taking on many monsters at once. Last night was running through the Black Curtain and wooping on some Necrid Horsemen/Warlock packs, the Dammed Cleric's were tough but fun. The apply poison/conjure phantasm with hunters shot and determined shot do a decent amount of damage really fast. Armor, I guess the best you can get at the time you can afford it.

Just wait till you get to the missions that are nigh impossible with henchmen.

- Edit - Thirsty River is tough, the final mission is really hard, and thunderhead keep is rediculous with NPCs that are not infused and the strategy in general that is required.

Tsunamii Starshine

Is this a theoretical exercise or an attempt at a real build? If you're looking for a realistic build, it's probably not a very good question. You'll hurt your damage per minute focusing on the highest spike you can get. But just for the fun of it...

R/E
Marskmanship: 12 (10+1mask+1rune)
Wilderness Survival: 12 (10+2rune)
Air Magic: 11

Favorable Winds (adds +6 per arrow)
Conjure Lightning (adds +12 per arrow)
Kindle Arrows (adds +20 per arrow)
Dual Shot (fires two arrows at a single target)

Now, assuming a customized max damage bow (18-33.6), that's about 14-25 per arrow on a dual shot (75% damage per arrow when using dual shot).

For simplicity's sake, let's assume you roll the max damage, but don't get a critical hit:

Damage = (25 + 20 + 12 + 6) * 2 = 126 damage, all at once

Is this a good build? Heck no. If you want to do sustained damage, you're almost certainly going to want some points in Expertise to reduce skill costs and Beast Mastery to extend the duration of Tiger's Fury. This will reduce the effectiveness of your enchantment and preparation a bit, but the small amount of damage you give up per hit will be made up for by the ability to get in more hits, and maintain your energy levels. You do a bit less damage per hit, but a lot more damage per minute.

By the way, this is just an off-the-cuff build. If someone really wanted to push it, you could certainly do more spike damage than that (e.g. use two +3 runes instead of a +1 and a +2 as above). But I don't feel like crunching the numbers for an even more unrealistic build.

Melandru's arrows. The +damage vs. enchanted targets is unblockable and ignores armor. Bleeding is just a bonus. Not hard to find an enchanted target, in many cases.

Even at its max, however, it doesn't add a much damage as a buffed Dual Shot. When it comes to damage spikes, nothing can touch a buff-stacked Dual Shot.

^ /agree

So.. dual shot melandru's arrows with JI or conjure? That's a guaranteed +~50 damage on an enchanted target from melandru's, plus the penetration and resist elimination.

This is great info! I'm currently running Conjure Flame/Kindle Arrows/ pull with dual shot and then fire up Tiger's Fury. I do this configuration with a Zealous Shortbow and my power just regens great. Sometimes I can't re-kindle so i'll flip to my Fiery shortbow when that wears off.

It sounds like I'm working a good damage routine at this time with fire dmg. Can anyone explain Judge's Insight? I'm unfamiliar with this spell.

Thanks again to the experienced community!

My ranger seems to do fine with max half moon 15% > 50hp with a fire damage bow string, customized.

I know what you are thinking, the fire string doesn't do much at all in ring of fire and such, well.. thats where winter comes in. Works well with barrage and Penetrating attack.

JI is a monk spell..so you would need to change secondary professions from R/E to R/Mo..and its an enchantment thats lets you do holy damage + 20% armor penetration for about 15 seconds

Quote:

I've been messing around with this build.

Quick shot
Judge insight
Tiger fury
Favorable winds
and possibly kindle arrows(although it gets annoying casting so many enchants and preps, also your mana starts to hurt using quickshot)

I've tried this with a horn bow, which supposely has an intate 20% armor peircing. To off-set the slow fire rate of the HornBow, quickshot and tiger fury was thrown in.

I havent been able to test enough to see if the judge insight and the hornbow stacks armor peircing properties. But if it does, you can potentially stack up to 50% armor peircing(20% from judge, 20% from hornbow, 10% from sundering string). Add in penetrating shot?

Quote:

I've been running the Conjure Fire line with Kindle Arrows and it's been working great. Running my zealous string as primary I'm rarely low on power so I can throw in lots of other attacks. I use barrage with this combo and when kindle wears off and flip to a fiery stringed shortbow and let loose the fury.

Thanks again for all the help